details...

Ok... first of all. Quite a few people were interested in the details of the "Conrad Stoltz" run work out. So here they are... straight from the Caveman's blog:

• As for whipping the running into shape, I believe hill repeats is the best way to build strength and incorporate quality. Actually, this is my coach, Libby’s key workout, which I thought was “crazy” the first few times I did it, but I learnt to love it and now know its probably my most important workout of the week. Its hard to part with this gem… Warm up and find a nice hill. Dirt or grass is good. Dirt or grass in the shade is best.
Run 6×2minute hills at AT, jog down.
Run 5minutes at AT on the flat
Run 6×1minute hills at AT, jog down
Run 5minutes at AT on the flat
Limp home.
Despite the scant looks of it, this run will be 1h20 or more, so bring our A game.

Just like any workout... it's only as hard as you make it. If you really push it up the hills and on the 5 minute intervals this workout will kick your ass for sure! I have two different hills where I perform this workout. One in San Elijo Lagoon and the other in PQ canyon. Both hills are tough. and remind me of particular parts of Xterra courses... good for visualization.

Here's a graph from one of my workouts a couple of weeks ago. As you can see I pushed it pretty hard and was able to get my HR into the 190's during the 5 min interval.


Here's some videos my sister took from the race this past weekend. Thanks Steph... killer race support as usual!

the swim.

The run and finish.


The weekend should be a fun one. I will be ending the last hard week of my second build phase with a mountain bike race out at Vail Lake (Home of the Xterra West Champs on 5/18). The last couple of mountain bike races I have done out there I have headed out there early for 1.5 - 2hrs of riding before the race, which typically start at 2pm. This week's race starts at 9am so I am going to show up, warm-up and go as hard as I can. Reading Cody's post this week has me itching to race my mountain bike. After the race I am going to tack on some extra mileage with Luke before I hit a loop of the Xterra run course.

Then on Sunday I have along run in the hills before meeting up with Mac and his crew for an open water swim session in Del Mar. It should be a good chance to get out in the open water with some fast peeps and try to hang on... and then that's it. Next week is a recovery week and my homeboy Trevor will be coming down to get in some training with me before we head out to AZ on Friday morning. We will be racing the AZ Xtreme Off road Triathlon (Xterra points series). This race was my first Xterra back in 2006 (read that blog.. it's funny) and from that point I knew what I wanted to focus... it's to think I am just starting my 3rd season of this crazy lifestyle of racing and training. There is nothing else I would rather be doing!

here's a little snip from my race report after my first Xterra race back in 2006... a sign of things to come...
"Despite all the blood and pain it was so much fun. I have never pushed that hard for that long. It was by far the hardest thing is any sport i have ever done, and I am already itching to do another. The Xterra crowd is awesome. They are a bunch of granola eating, beer drinking, hardcore, friendly, fast triathletes. I met and talked to so many cool people."


one last thing. Check Trevor's coaching blog for a great post. I couldn't have said (or typed) it better myself.

check back after the weekend for race report from the MTB race... I am really going to try and give it everything I have and see what I have in the legs with 30 days to go until "The Race".